Jean-Pierre Sauvage (; born 21 October 1944) is a French coordination chemist working at

Strasbourg University The University of Strasbourg (french: Université de Strasbourg, Unistra) is a public research university located in Strasbourg, Alsace, France, with over 52,000 students and 3,300 researchers. The French university traces its history to the ea ...

. He graduated from the National School of Chemistry of Strasbourg (now known as ECPM Strasbourg), in 1967. He has specialized in

supramolecular chemistry Supramolecular chemistry refers to the branch of chemistry concerning chemical systems composed of a discrete number of molecules. The strength of the forces responsible for spatial organization of the system range from weak intermolecular forces, ...

for which he has been awarded the 2016

Nobel Prize in Chemistry ) , image = Nobel Prize.png , alt = A golden medallion with an embossed image of a bearded man facing left in profile. To the left of the man is the text "ALFR•" then "NOBEL", and on the right, the text (smaller) "NAT•" then "M ...

along with Sir J. Fraser Stoddart and

Bernard L. Feringa Bernard Lucas Feringa (, born 18 May 1951) is a Dutch synthetic organic chemist, specializing in molecular nanotechnology and homogeneous catalysis. He is the Jacobus van 't Hoff Distinguished Professor of Molecular Sciences, at the Stratingh ...

Biography

Sauvage was born in Paris in 1944, and earned his

PhD PHD or PhD may refer to: * Doctor of Philosophy (PhD), an academic qualification Entertainment * '' PhD: Phantasy Degree'', a Korean comic series * ''Piled Higher and Deeper'', a web comic * Ph.D. (band), a 1980s British group ** Ph.D. (Ph.D. albu ...

degree from the Université Louis-Pasteur under the supervision of

Jean-Marie Lehn Jean-Marie Lehn (born 30 September 1939) is a French chemist. He received the Nobel Prize in Chemistry together with Donald Cram and Charles Pedersen in 1987 for his synthesis of cryptands. Lehn was an early innovator in the field of supramolec ...

, himself a 1987 laureate of the Nobel Prize in Chemistry. During his doctoral work, he contributed to the first syntheses of the

cryptand In chemistry, cryptands are a family of synthetic, bicyclic and polycyclic, multidentate ligands for a variety of cations. The Nobel Prize for Chemistry in 1987 was given to Donald J. Cram, Jean-Marie Lehn, and Charles J. Pedersen for their e ...

ligands. After postdoctoral research with Malcolm L. H. Green, he returned to

Strasbourg Strasbourg (, , ; german: Straßburg ; gsw, label=Bas Rhin Alsatian, Strossburi , gsw, label=Haut Rhin Alsatian, Strossburig ) is the prefecture and largest city of the Grand Est region of eastern France and the official seat of the Eu ...

, where he is now emeritus professor. Sauvage's scientific work has focused on creating molecules that mimic the functions of machines by changing their conformation in response to an external signal. His Nobel Prize work was done in 1983, when he was the first to synthesize a

catenane In macromolecular chemistry, a catenane () is a mechanically interlocked molecular architecture consisting of two or more interlocked macrocycles, i.e. a molecule containing two or more intertwined rings. The interlocked rings cannot be sepa ...

, a complex of two interlocking ring-shaped molecules, which were bonded mechanically rather than chemically. Because these two rings can move relative to each other, the Nobel Prize cited this as a vital initial effort towards making

molecular machine A molecular machine, nanite, or nanomachine is a molecular component that produces quasi-mechanical movements (output) in response to specific stimuli (input). In cellular biology, macromolecular machines frequently perform tasks essential for l ...

. The other two recipients of the prize followed up by later creating a

rotaxane In chemistry, a rotaxane () is a mechanically interlocked molecular architecture consisting of a dumbbell-shaped molecule which is threaded through a macrocycle (see graphical representation). The two components of a rotaxane are kinetically t ...

and a molecular rotor. Other research includes electrochemical reduction of CO₂ and models of the

photosynthetic Photosynthesis is a process used by plants and other organisms to convert light energy into chemical energy that, through cellular respiration, can later be released to fuel the organism's activities. Some of this chemical energy is stored in c ...

reaction center. A large theme of his work is molecular

topology In mathematics, topology (from the Greek language, Greek words , and ) is concerned with the properties of a mathematical object, geometric object that are preserved under Continuous function, continuous Deformation theory, deformations, such ...

, specifically

mechanically-interlocked molecular architectures In chemistry, mechanically-interlocked molecular architectures (MIMAs) are molecules that are connected as a consequence of their topology. This connection of molecules is analogous to keys on a keychain loop. The keys are not directly connected ...

. He has described syntheses of

s and

molecular knot In chemistry, a molecular knot is a mechanically interlocked molecular architecture that is analogous to a macroscopic knot. Naturally-forming molecular knots are found in organic molecules like DNA, RNA, and proteins. It is not certain that nat ...

s based on coordination complexes. He was elected a correspondent member of the

French Academy of Sciences The French Academy of Sciences (French: ''Académie des sciences'') is a learned society, founded in 1666 by Louis XIV of France, Louis XIV at the suggestion of Jean-Baptiste Colbert, to encourage and protect the spirit of French Scientific me ...

on 26 March 1990, and became a member on 24 November 1997. He is currently emeritus professor at the

University of Strasbourg The University of Strasbourg (french: Université de Strasbourg, Unistra) is a public research university located in Strasbourg, Alsace, France, with over 52,000 students and 3,300 researchers. The French university traces its history to the ea ...

(Unistra). He shared the 2016 Nobel Prize in Chemistry "for the design and synthesis of

s" with Sir J. Fraser Stoddart and

. He was elected a foreign associate of the US

National Academy of Sciences The National Academy of Sciences (NAS) is a United States nonprofit, non-governmental organization. NAS is part of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, along with the National Academy of Engineering (NAE) and the Nati ...

in April 2019. , Sauvage has an

h-index The ''h''-index is an author-level metric that measures both the productivity and citation impact of the publications, initially used for an individual scientist or scholar. The ''h''-index correlates with obvious success indicators such as winn ...

of 109 according to

Google Scholar Google Scholar is a freely accessible web search engine that indexes the full text or metadata of scholarly literature across an array of publishing formats and disciplines. Released in beta in November 2004, the Google Scholar index includes p ...

and of 100 according to

Scopus Scopus is Elsevier's abstract and citation database launched in 2004. Scopus covers nearly 36,377 titles (22,794 active titles and 13,583 inactive titles) from approximately 11,678 publishers, of which 34,346 are peer-reviewed journals in top-l ...

References

External links

*
A Chem Soc Rev themed issue
dedicated to Professor Jean-Pierre Sauvage on the occasion of his 65th birthday. Include
The master of Chemical Topology
accessed 13 October 2016. * {{DEFAULTSORT:Sauvage, Jean-Pierre 1944 births Living people Scientists from Paris 20th-century French chemists 21st-century French chemists French nanotechnologists Members of the French Academy of Sciences Chevaliers of the Légion d'honneur Nobel laureates in Chemistry University of Strasbourg faculty French Nobel laureates Foreign associates of the National Academy of Sciences Foreign Members of the Russian Academy of Sciences